A Matter of Principle
by Grey's Princess
Summary: A bit of fluff involving a broomstick, a height difference, and Haruhi's faulty principles. TamaXHaru


**Umm, so this one popped into my mind while I was showering. Go figure. I hope it brings you at least some amusement! Reviews make me squee!**

**Disclaimer: When's the last time you saw anyone writing fanfiction when they owned something and could totally just have it published as canon? Think, people!**

"It wouldn't work," she murmured.

I looked up from where I was cleaning a table and shot her a confused look. I didn't think Haruhi was exactly the type to talk to herself, but it _was_ late and she did tend to act differently when she was tired. Still, there was nobody else in the room, and she hadn't given me enough information to understand what she was talking about. Who knows? She'd been working nonstop all day today. Maybe she was just talking to herself, after all.

Regardless, my curiosity was piqued.

"What wouldn't work?"

Haruhi immediately blushed a bit, and nearly dropped her broom. I would kill Kyouya and the others for leaving us all the cleanup work, I noted mentally. Haruhi was beyond exhausted as it was. It wouldn't have killed them to help out a little.

But it was nice to have her all to myself.

Haruhi took a moment to steady herself and her broom, then went back to sweeping. "Sorry- I was just thinking aloud."

So she had been talking to herself. That didn't make me any less interested, though. On the contrary- this was a rare opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of my darling Haruhi's mind. I pressed on. "About _what_?"

This time, she stopped sweeping altogether, turning an unnatural shade of red that I hadn't known was possible. "This is _purely_ hypothetical, all right?" she told me, her yawn giving away how utterly tired she was. Haruhi never yawned. I nodded for her to continue.

"And you can't tell anyone about this."

Another nod. I was getting a bit impatient. I was slightly worried that if she kept sidestepping the question like this, my brain might explode.

Her blush deepened to alarming proportions. "Well, I was just thinking that if" –she cleared her throat- "if you and I fell in love someday, it would never work out."

And there it was. I'd been rejected before I'd even mustered up the courage to confess to her. Was there no hope, then? Why did she think it would never work out? Was it because of me? What had I done, that she thought us falling in love would _never work out?_

"Why?" I asked, trying to stay casual about it. No amount of Host Club acting experience, however, could keep all of the despair out of my voice.

Haruhi shrugged, her color beginning to return to normal. "Because of our height," she said simply, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She closed her eyes sleepily.

If I wasn't so worked up already, I would have laughed. "Our height?"

"Well, sure. I mean, look at us. You're so tall, and I'm… me. There's too much of a height difference. It would never work." Haruhi clasped her hands together, clearly having decided there was nothing more to discuss.

She must be tired- her logic was faultier than I'd ever seen it tonight. So there was hope, after all. I began to regain confidence. "You're kidding, right? There's no way you're serious."

"Of course I'm serious. It's a matter of principle."

_Principle?_ She thought that something as little as this was against her _principles?_ Was the girl crazy? "You mean to tell me that if you and I were to fall in love one day, you think our height difference would matter so much to your principles that we couldn't work around it?" It had just begun to occur to me that Haruhi had to be thinking about all this for a reason, and this was my chance to see what she really felt for me. Hope was a funny thing.

Sure enough, my question made her blush come right back. That was good, wasn't it? She wouldn't blush if she didn't feel anything for me, would she? "Well, umm… You can't kiss as well when there's this much of a height difference, so…"

That had to be proof! She wouldn't have brought it up if she didn't love me, would she have? It seemed to take me no time at all to cross the room and take her in my arms. "Is that so?" I asked, and kissed her.

At first, I was too caught up in the sensation of finally kissing Haruhi to think about much else. But after a while, self-doubt began to catch up with me and I started to worry.

I'd _thought_ I had everything figured out correctly, but as the rest of the host club had been so eager to point out, I'd been glaringly wrong on that count before. What if I was wrong this time? What if I'd misinterpreted, and Haruhi didn't really like me? What if kissing her now was the biggest mistake I'd ever make in my life? What if there was more to her _principles_ than just a height difference that made her feel it wouldn't work out?

It was too late to turn back now. I'd already kissed her; it wasn't like I could go and deny it. Whether Haruhi hated me or loved me after this, I was stuck with the consequences of my actions. Abruptly, I pulled back.

It could have just been my mind showing me what I wanted to see, as it so often did, but it looked to me like she frowned a bit in reaction.

"Haruhi, I apologize for acting so rashly," I started, trying my best to be a gentleman to make up for my previous mistakes. "If this isn't what you want, please just say the word. I won't bother you anymore."

I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the rejection I was now certain was on its way. It was silent for a while, which only served to make me panic. Then I heard Haruhi murmur, "You were right."

I peeled one eye open- that didn't sound like a rejection to me. "Right about what?"

"The height difference really doesn't affect how well you can kiss," she explained, shooting me a shy smile.

I stood there dumb struck. What was that supposed to mean? Did she think I was a good kisser, then? Was it okay for me to kiss her? It was all so confusing! "So I…"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Wow, Hikaru was right. You really are slow."

That was not fair! I may not have been the most intelligent person around, but not everybody could be lawyer smart like her! "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," I finally admitted, frowning a bit.

"Oh, drop the gentlemanly act already. We're not in the host club right now, you know." She sighed. "Senp… Tamaki. Think about this for a minute, all right? Why do you think I was thinking about stuff like this in the first place?"

She called me Tamaki. That other stuff wasn't important; she called me Tamaki. Haruhi _never_ called me Tamaki. "You called me Tamaki."

She rolled her eyes at me again. What was this, Pick On Tamaki Day or something? "That's not remotely the point here. The point is, I was thinking about those things because I" –she took a deep breath as if to steady herself, turning that unnatural shade of red again- "love you. So you didn't do anything you needed to apologize for. So you can calm down now."

In truth, I barely heard anything past her wonderfully endearing "I love you."

And why would I need to hear anything else? I'd just received the confirmation I'd been craving for so long. What else could matter? It seemed like the world had fallen into place at last after all this time.

So maybe I overreacted. But I couldn't help myself! The second I finally got my mind around exactly what she'd said, I picked her up and spun her around. Haruhi'd said she loved me! Hope was back again, full force.

"Mmf… Tamaki, you're strangling me."

I loosened my grip just a bit, and looked Haruhi (could it be possible that she was truly _my_ Haruhi?) in the eye. "Do you really mean it?"

She gave me a look like I couldn't get any stupider. "Have I ever lied to you?"

Of course she hadn't. "Then does that mean it's okay to kiss you?"

"I've been waiting for you to," she responded wryly, then in a very un-Haruhi-like gesture, kissed me before I could get another word in edgewise.

Suddenly, the cleaning didn't seem all that important anyway. Perhaps it was just a matter of principle.


End file.
